Alexsandro suffers injury on Lille return following ‘dangerous’ international break | OneFootball

Lille OSC’s fears were realised when, after a “dangerous” international break, Alexsandro (26) was injured upon his return to club football.

The centre-back played the full ninety minutes of Brazil’s1-0 defeat away to Bolivia at the Estadio Municipal de El Alto, a stadium 4088 metres above sea level.

The circumstances of the game, in particular, the altitude of the stadium, made Lille consider how to manage the defender upon his return. The centre-back didn’t train on Friday, ahead of LOSC’s match against Toulouse FC on Sunday.

However, he did start against Le TéFéCé. But he didn’t even make it to half-time in the 2-1 win. He suffered an injury near the psoas, Bruno Genesio revealed post-match. The Lille manager also justified starting Alexsandro, despite voicing concerns about the player’s state during Friday’s press conference.

He said that he “feared” such a thing could happen, however, he felt obliged to start the centre-back because “unfortunately, we didn’t have lots of other solutions to allow him to take a breather.”

Alexsandro was then replaced by new signing Chancel Mbemba. The former’s participation in next weekend’s derby against RC Lens now looks compromised.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle